BEIRUT: The head
of Lebanon's Tehran-backed Hezbollah said Friday that US ally Israel would not
be "neutral" if a war broke out between the United States and Iran.
And "Iran is able to bombard Israel with ferocity and force," Hassan
Nasrallah said in an interview broadcast on Hezbollah's Al-Manar television.
His remarks came after weeks of increasing tensions between the United States
and Iran, and as US President Donald Trump steps up his war of words with the
Islamic Republic.

"When the
Americans understand that this war could wipe out Israel, they will
reconsider," Nasrallah said. "Our collective responsibility in the
region is to work towards preventing an American war on Iran," he said. He
said neither Saudi Arabia nor the United Arab Emirates had any interest in a
conflict erupting. On Friday, the US House of Representatives voted to restrict
Trump's ability to attack Iran, voicing fear that his hawkish policies are
pushing toward a needless war.

Hezbollah is
considered to be a terrorist organization by the United States, and is the only
faction not to have disarmed after the Lebanese 1975-1990 civil war. But it is
also a major political player in the small Mediterranean country, taking 13
seats in parliament last year and securing three posts in the current cabinet.

Syria presence
downgraded

Nasrallah also
said he had decreased the number of his movement's fighters supporting the
Damascus regime in neighboring war-torn Syria. "The Syrian army has
greatly recovered and has found that today it does not need us," he said.
"We are present in every area that we used to be. We are still there, but
we don't need to be there in large numbers as long as there is no practical need,"
he said. The head of the Iran-backed Shiite movement, which has been fighting
in Syria since 2013, did not give details on the extent of the reduction.

Backed by Russia
and Iran, the Damascus government has taken back large swathes of territory
from rebels and jihadists since 2015, and now controls around 60 percent of the
country. Nasrallah spoke after Washington announced fresh sanctions Tuesday
against Hezbollah, targeting elected officials from the movement for the first
time. Nasrallah said none of his fighters were currently involved in fighting
in Syria's northwestern region of Idlib, where regime and Russian forces have
increased deadly bombardments on a jihadist-run bastion since late April. But
"if there was a need to return, all those who were there would go
back" to Syria, he added.

Tel Aviv 'within
range'

Responding to a
question about repeated Israeli air strikes on Syria, he said the Israeli Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was "deceiving his people". "He is
playing a game of brinkmanship, because Iran will not leave Syria," he
warned. Israel has carried out hundreds of strikes in neighboring Syria against
what it says are Iranian and Hezbollah military targets. It has vowed to keep
Iran from entrenching itself militarily there.

Nasrallah's
interview came to mark the start of his movement's 2006 war with Israel, which
killed more than 1,200 Lebanese, mostly civilians, and more than 160 Israelis,
mostly soldiers. Both countries are still technically at war, and a UN
peacekeeping force has said three tunnels have been found to have dug under the
border from Lebanon into Israel since late last year. The group's leader warned
that key Israeli installations along the Mediterranean coast including Tel Aviv
were "within range of our rockets".- AFP